Water That Kills

RESEARCHERS from the Mayor de San Marcos National University in Peru examined 30 samples of water from public facilities and residences in the city of Lima. According to Visión, a Latin-​American magazine, 29 samples were heavily contaminated with bacterial agents and fecal residue. Only one sample of water was fit for human consumption.

The Peruvian Ministry of Health has concluded that 50 percent of the water consumed by the people of Lima can transmit “dysentery, typhoid, hepatitis, cholera, and other gastrointestinal disorders.” Particularly notorious has been the cholera epidemic that broke out in Peru, infecting some 150,000 people and causing 1,100 deaths just between January and April of 1991.

A widely recommended solution to the problem is to boil the water long enough to destroy infectious organisms. However, this is not always so easy to accomplish. Visión notes that for “many families it is practically a luxury to boil water for ten minutes because kerosene costs more than one dollar a gallon,” which is a high percentage of the average weekly wage.

The problem of contaminated drinking water is not unique to poverty-​stricken countries. For example, according to The New York Times, in the United States, it is “estimated that each year more than 250,000 children are exposed to lead in drinking water at levels high enough to impair their mental and physical development.” And in Europe there is growing concern over polluted waterways. The magazine New Scientist reports that “much of the water supply in Europe comes from aquifers, which are prone to serious contamination by chemical and metallic compounds.”

At Revelation 14:7, the Bible refers to Jehovah as “the One who made the heaven and the earth and sea and fountains of waters.” He also has the power to turn bitter and polluted waters into sweet and clean waters. (Exodus 15:22-25; 2 Kings 2:19-22) This he will do on a worldwide scale after bringing to ruin those who are now ruining the earth.​—Revelation 11:18.